"The stories of The Player are filled with memorable characters, individuals swimming against the undertow of life, slouching toward an uncertain tomorrow in search of the great unknowable something hiding out in the mysterious land where love is found, lost, and all too often misplaced. I am glad to have met them. "-Ross West, whose stories have appeared recently in Wisconsin Review, The Satirist, Entropy, Litro, and Pangyrus"Russ Desaulnier's fourth collection of short stories may impossibly be his best. The Player is fourteen well-crafted tales driven by a wide breadth of culture and a deep well of sentiment for his characters. "-Dan Armstrong, author of the novels Quicksand and Blake College"The characters of the stories in The Player are undaunted by the challenges of following dreams-the promise of a career in Japan, glory as a torero in Mexican bullrings, an offer to be a carefree gentleman and live in an Irish castle, etc. The characters take us from California to Mexico and Spain, to Japan and Greece, all with the go-for-it optimism of youth. "-Rafael Zepeda, Cal State Long Beach professor of English, author of the novel Desperados, and Horse Medicine Other Stories"The Player is a well-written collection of stories, just the book to read while sipping coffee after a chilly morning walk. You can't go wrong. "-Arthur Wild, author of the short story collections What Old Men Think About and A Confusion of Stories